Sideboard (15)

Maybeboard

Enchantment (1)

Artifact (4)

Description

This deck is based a lot around synergy. Not all cards synergize with all cards but a lot synergize with eachother. This deck features aggro elements, the brought back -1/-1 counters, and burn.

CREATURES

-Bontu the Glorified: Bontu is a solid 4/6 for 3 mana that will almost always have a 1/1 ready to sac. His ability is good for tempo aswell, for turns when you have little to spend your mana on.

-Festering Mummy: AKA Shambling Goblin 2.0, he acts as fodder for Bontu and as a -1/-1 counter for Hapatra.

-Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons: Hapatra serves a lot of roles. First and foremost she is a bear. But her first ability let's her attack and if she gets through you have a blocker to deal with non trample or flying threats. Her second ability synergizes very well with Soul-Scar Mage.

-Reckless Bushwhacker: He is an aggro staples and with all the cheap burn, plus the tokens, he lets amazing 10 damage swings go through on turn 3 or 4. Playing him for his non surge cost is almost never worth it.

-Soul-Scar Mage: Prowess is apparently evergreen now. Her ability makes all burn better + it affects even indestructible creatures. She's a 1/2 Prowess with haste for 1 mana so that's just about as good as Monastery Swiftspear in Khans. She obviously helps Hapatra and is fodder for Bontu at worst.

-Yaheeni, Undying Partisan: Yaheeni is just...good for burn. She can also sack creatures without paying mana so that Bontu can attack. She also gets bigger as time goes on. And haste too.

-Chandra, Torch of Defiance. Her 1st ability is essentially card draw and that's really good in this deck. Don't play more than 2. I only have 1 and I don't want to make this deck super expensive.

LAND

-Aether Hub: Combos with Harnessed Lightning and helps fix mana.

-Blooming Marsh: Good for the green or black mana needed for certain cards. Fast land for Hapatra.

-Smoldering Marsh: Kind of sucks this comes in tapped but it's better than Foreboding Ruins in my opinion.

-Having 5 mountains is very necessary due to the very prominent red color. Not many forests or swamps are needed because of Aether Hub, etc.

SIDEBOARDNote: This is not a very concrete sideboard. This is essentially a maybeboard.

-Bone Picker: Really good flyer that can be a deathtouch blocker to deal with flying or a cheap aggro flyer that combos with Bontu.

-Channeler Initiate: Combos with Hapatra and helps the mana problem.

-Hapatra: I'm on the fence on whether or not I need 3 or 4 Hapatra's.

-Kari Zev's Expertise: This is a great card that could help me steal a troublesome creature, and swing for the kill. If not it also lets me free cast any burn spell and most of my creatures.

-Radiant flames: This is sooooooooooooooo good in concept. Because of the nature of the card, I can have X = 1,2, or 3 depending on what I need. And if the Soul-Scar mage is out, it gives -1/-1 counters. And if I also have Hapatra out then I get a snake for every creature on the battlefield. All for 3 mana.

OVERVIEW

I say this deck is based on synergy, but there are few problems. First of all it is a 3 color deck so getting the colors you need is trouble some. Second of all, being what it is(a mix between aggro and mid-range) it has some problems from both deck types. Sometimes you don't draw the cards you need to go fast enough, but going too fast sometimes leaves you relying on top decks. This is a tricky balance that I honestly don't think I quite figured out. I'm looking for any and all help. I will build this and take it to Game Day hopefully but if not at least a few FNM's.

UPDATES

-Replacing Festering Mummy with Channeler Initiate does lead to a much less stressful mana problem, however, it does seem to sometimes be ramping faster than the deck needs to.

-Playing Attune with Aether is a better mana fixer than Channeler Initiate in most cases. Also I took the suggestion of Sixth Sense as a way to replenish cards that I get rid of rather quickly.

Enchantment (4)

Planeswalker (1)

Instant (13)

Sideboard (15)

3x Bone&emsp13;Picker

4x Channeler&emsp13;Initiate

1x Hapatra,&emsp13;Vizier&emsp13;of&emsp13;Poisons

3x Kari&emsp13;Zev's&emsp13;Expertise

4x Radiant&emsp13;Flames

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